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Musicians Jerry Garcia - electric guitar (lead), vocals Bill Kreutzmann - drums, perc Bob Weir - electric guitar (rhythm), vocals Phil Lesh - electric bass, vocals Ron McKernan - organ, vocals 

 Ladera was an unincorporated community in the hills above Menlo Park and Palo Alto, just West of Stanford University. The Ladera School was a public K-5th school, which is now the private Woodland School (I believe K-8). Some parents used the Ladera School gym to put on dances for the local teenagers, by then in High School. This was probably because there was little for the teenagers to do in Ladera. A few successful dances had been put on, so the parents decided to pay the Dead $2000 to perform. December 17 was a Saturday, and there was no way a working band was going to pass on a Saturday night booking. Tickets were $1.00. 

 Although there had been rumors about this event over the years, the mystery was finally resolved when Ladera scholar Susan Suesser found a 1966 article about the dance in the neighborhood newspaper, the Ladera Crier, and then recounted in the local newspaper, the Country Almanac. The article was republished in the fine In Menlo blog. There's no doubt about this one--the Country Almanac even had a picture of Pigpen.